Kukla's Korner Hockey

Martin Brodeur doesn’t feel like he was lied to. Just blamed unfairly, and undoubtedly disrespected by head coach Mike Babcock.

Not only did Babcock call out Brodeur for his play in a 5-3 loss to the United States on Sunday, he then told Roberto Luongo he would be in goal for the qualification match against Germany a few hours after the game but waited to deliver the news to Brodeur, the winningest goalie in the history of the sport, until before practice on Monday.

Maybe you can never make these kind of momentous changes and keep everyone happy.

But Babcock didn’t really try.

So now he’s got to ride Luongo to the end of these Olympics….

Anytime Babcock has had success—1997 world juniors, 2002 Stanley Cup final with Anaheim, 2008 and ’09 Cup finals with Detroit—he has identified a starting goalie and rode him hard.

He didn’t pull Marc Denis in ’97 when that team struggled, or J.S. Giguere in ’02, or Chris Osgood in either of the past two playoff season.

more and someone forgot who the starting goalie for the Wings was in the 2008 playoffs (hint, it wasn’t Osgood)..